Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery, 43, Is Pregnant With 1st Baby

Surprise! Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery is pregnant and expecting her first baby with husband Jasper Waller-Bridge.

Dockery, 43, shared the news by debuting her baby bump at the world premiere of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London, England, on Wednesday, September 3. The actress was glowing as she posed on the red carpet in a dusty blue off-the-shoulder gown with a long train and silver jewelry. Waller-Bridge, 37, held Dockery’s hand and flashed a huge smile as he stood beside her in a navy blue suit.

At one point, Dockery, who has played Lady Mary Crawley in the Downton Abbey universe since 2010, affectionately placed a hand on her stomach as she smiled for the cameras.

Dockery and Waller-Bridge — the brother of actress, writer and director Phoebe Waller-Bridge – began dating in 2019. They announced their engagement in January 2022.

“The engagement is announced between Jasper, son of Michael Waller-Bridge of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, and Teresa Waller-Bridge of Battersea, London, and Michelle, younger daughter of Michael and Lorraine Dockery of Gidea Park, Essex,” a notice in The Times of London read at the time.

The couple tied the knot in September 2023. Photos taken outside of a West London church at the time showed Dockery wearing a white satin dress and holding a bouquet of flowers, while Jasper wore a navy suit with a pink flower pinned to his jacket. Confetti surrounded the bride and groom as their friends and family cheered them on.

The wedding ceremony was attended by many of Dockery’s Downton Abbey costars, according to The Independent.

Dockery and Jasper’s nuptials came after her engagement to public relations executive John Dineen, who died at 34 years old in 2015 following a battle with a rare form of cancer. The English actress thanked the public for their “support and kindness” in a statement shared via her rep at the time.

“[The family] kindly [requests] that they are left to grieve in private,” the statement continued.

Dockery later told The Guardian in 2017 that she considered herself a “widow.”

“We were engaged, and married at heart, and so I do consider myself a widow. … That’s the first time I’ve said that, and it’s a bit of a relief to say so,” she admitted.

Dockery also reflected on getting back to work after Dineen’s death.

“It’s just important for me to take the right time off. There was this feeling after John died of, what do I do now?” she told the outlet. “What am I doing with my life? And so work was the next step. I just had to work. To throw myself into the next job was the only option for me.”

She continued, “Someone said to me recently that when a baby is born, they’re considered brand new up to the age of six. But after two or three years, we seem to think a death is no longer recent. It’s like losing a limb, isn’t it? It will always be a part of you.”